Michael Bay, the Transformers director, is attacked in Hong Kong while filming

The director Michael Bay was attacked in Hong Kong on Thursday the latest sequel of his Transformers films, although he brushed off the incident and kept filming.

Two brothers surnamed Mak, aged 27 and 28, approached Bay on the set during filming for the American science fiction film and the younger brother demanded payment of HK$100,000 (£8,000), a police spokesman told Reuters.

Bay said in a post on his website that the man was a vendor who was inconvenienced by the shoot and wanted more money than the "fair price" vendors were paid.

"I personally told this man and his friends to forget it we were not going to let him extort us," Bay wrote, adding that the men returned about an hour later, one wielding a "long air conditioner unit."

As a discussion ensued in a busy area of Hong Kong island, the elder of the two brothers walked up and assaulted the director, the police spokesman said. The elder brother then attacked three police officers who tried to intervene, she added.